Stay Healthy!

College brings with it many opportunities and benefits, but it also introduces you into a world filled with new, harmful germs. Yuck, I know. Because the college life introduces you to so many different individuals and new friends, it makes it that much easier for an illness to spread. Just as well, it is not uncommon to see many more injuries upon a college campus as well. I thought that it would be appropriate to address the top 8 illnesses/injuries found among college students for my last blog post!

1.       Meningococcal Meningitis

This illness is caused by a bacterial infection that results in swelling of the membranes covering the brain. Meningococcal meningitis is common on college campuses because college kids live in such close quarters. Epidemics are most common in the spring and winter, and outbreaks of this college illness have increased in recent years. About 100 to 125 college kids can be expected to come down with meningitis each year. To safeguard college health, a simple meningococcal meningitis vaccination is recommended for students living in dormitories. “The highest risk is for kids under 21, and most schools now require a vaccination for their students,” says Dr. Napolitana.

2.       Colds and Flu

“In 2009 the H1N1 flu virus came up from Mexico and swept across many college campuses,” says Napolitana. Colds and flu viruses thrive on college campuses because students are sharing close quarters and may not take all the preventive measures they should. Most college health centers offer the flu vaccine, and it is recommended for all students. As for the best way to avoid the common cold, avoid burning the candle at both ends, avoid sharing personal items with sick classmates, and wash your hands frequently.

 

3.       Foodborne Illnesses

“A college is like a cruise ship,” notes Napolitana, and not necessarily in a good way. Norovirus and other foodborne viruses can spread from contaminated food and water and from touching contaminated surfaces — and symptoms like diarrhea and nausea then spread quickly, too. Sharing bathrooms and food sources is a common cause of outbreaks of this college illness. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), recent outbreaks on campuses in California, Michigan, and Wisconsin point out the need to prevent foodborne illnesses through hand washing, vigilant disinfecting of common areas, and making sure any sick food workers stay home until they’ve recovered.

 

4.       STDs and HIV

“One of the most important discussions that needs to take place before a college student goes away to school is the importance of safe sex,” advises Napolitana. Kids may experience a sexual freedom that they did not have in high school. Studies show that college-age kids are at the highest risk for STDs. The CDC recommends that college age women get the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccination and that sexually active women get tested for chlamydia and other STDs yearly for early detection of these college illnesses. The best preventions for STDs and HIV include abstinence, a safe and faithful relationship, or use of a latex condom.

 

5.       Mononucleosis

Mononucleosis is a common college illness caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. Symptoms are severe sore throat, fever, and exhaustion. “Mononucleosis tends to be more severe and prolonged in college age kids and can result in loss of a semester or the dropping of a college sport,” says Napolitana. Most mononucleosis infections occur between the ages of 10 and 19. Studies show that college kids have similar rates of infection as active military personnel at about 11 to 48 cases for every 1,000 students. The best way to avoid this college illness is to avoid getting run-down.

 

6.       Strep Infections

These infections are caused by the bacteria group A streptococcus, and the symptoms can be very similar to mononucleosis. But since strep is a bacterial infection it responds to antibiotics. Like mononucleosis, living in close quarters and getting run-down are common risk factors for this common college illness. Although most sore throats are caused by viruses, a throat culture can usually diagnose strep, and strep infections usually respond quickly to the right medication. Strep season usually follows the cold and flu season and prevention measures are the same.

 

7.       Dating Violence

Several large studies on sexual violence as a college health issue have found that at least half of all incidents are related to alcohol use, about 95 percent happen to women, and rates of sexual violence range from 30 to 50 percent. The American College Health Association recognizes this important college health issue and believes that rates of dating violence may actually be underreported. Dating violence may result in lower academic success as well as persistent mental and physical health problems. The best prevention is through education, enforcement of strict disciplinary guidelines, and having alcohol-free environments.

 

8.       Accidental Injuries

“Like dating violence, a large percentage of college accidents are related to alcohol abuse,” says Napolitana. Studies show that more than 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related accidents, including motor vehicle accidents. It is also estimated that about 600,000 college students get into alcohol-related fights. Accidental injuries not related to alcohol are much less common and can be prevented by common sense measures such as wearing a helmet when biking. But the most important way to safeguard college health is to avoid drinking or to only drink responsibly.

 

So….the main message here is TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND BE CAREFUL!!! We all know that with studying and such a heavy workload, there is no time to get sick!! I hope that these tips help and I also hope that no one will have to experience any of the above illnesses/injuries anytime soon!

Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/college-health-pictures/protect-your-health-in-college-by-taking-smart-precautions.aspx#/slide-1

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Advocacy

                To me, advocacy is the ACT of promoting an idea or a cause to the public. It is making society aware of a particular issue. I stress the word act because without taking action, I feel as though hope is lost. One cannot simply sit back and accept the changes that are happening. He/she must do something about it. In order to truly advocate for something, one must be bold and unfaltering, highly educated on the subject matter, and willing to take a stand. I feel as though his/her actions must spark peoples’ attention and make them want to do something more. For example, I do not see simply posting a picture on the internet as a form of advocacy. To me, maybe a video that inspires others to take a stand or organizing a program that encourages many to support your cause are true forms of advocacy.

                Whether I am able to make the twirling competition happen or create an iMovie that will appear on the internet, I feel as though my advocacy project will be effective. It will be in a place where passionate individuals can see it and finally take a stand for something that they believe in. Hopefully the success of my project will be reflected in the actions of many teenagers and adults throughout the region.

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Laughter is the Best Medicine!

                   

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                I feel as though it is now time to address the title of my blog: laughter is the best medicine. Have you ever heard this saying? While it may seem as though this statement is pure nonsense, it is actually proven that laughter is a healthy thing.

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                   Laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to a recent study by cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

                  Many doctors have reported that laughter reduces pain and allows us to tolerate discomfort. Laughter also reduces blood sugar levels, increasing glucose tolerance in diabetics and nondiabetics alike. It improves your job performance, especially if your work depends upon creativity and solving complex problems. There has even been evidence, again from the University of Maryland, that suggests that laughter helps your blood vessels function better by acting on the inner lining of blood vessels, causing the vessels to relax and expand, increasing blood flow. In other words, it is good for your heart and brain, two organs that require a steady flow of oxygen that is carried in the blood.

                 All in all, there have been no negative effects observed that correlate with laughter….only positive outcomes!! So, laugh all that you want to! It truly is a healthy act that only helps you in the long run. While laughter is not the ONLY solution for many ailments, it is helpful in many situations. Have you laughed today??

How about now?

How about now?

 Sources:
http://www.umm.edu/features/laughter.htm#ixzz2PySMVusl
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200504/laughter-the-best-medicine

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Advocacy Project

                Although I was planning to create my advocacy project based upon this idea of “post-racial” America, I changed my mind. Instead, I would like to advocate for the importance of music education in schools. Because I played the flute from 4th – 12th grade and have twirled for even longer, music education has been an integral part of my life and it is extremely important to me. As budget cuts have been made, in many school districts, the music programs have been done away with. In order to advocate for and support music education, I would like to host an indoor competition (this is basically a competition in which twirlers, color guard, dance teams, and drumline corps all come together and compete against one another).Almost every indoor group that I have ever come into contact with is affiliated with a music education program at their high school in some way.

                There would be an entry fee to the competition, as well as vendors. Out of the schools that chose to compete, there would be a raffle and all of the proceeds of the day would go to that school’s high school music program. In my head, this sounds like a great idea but I still have to work out all of the logistics!! If this doesn’t work out, I also thought about making an iMovie and posting it to Facebook and YouTube. This movie would be filled with interviews from children that are in elementary school, to high schoolers, to members of the Blue Band, and ending with those who teach music education. I think that it would be awesome to see how music education progresses, how it has helped many succeed, and how it connects so many people! Either way, I feel that it would be a successful project!

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BREAKTHROUGH!!!!

 

            A breakthrough!! As of 6 days ago, scientists from the Stanford University of Medicine have reported finding a possible cure for cancer…our world has waited for this for so long! Researchers have found that a SINGLE drug can shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, and prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice. The treatment involves an antibody that blocks a signal that typically prevents your cells from attacking a tumor cell and furthermore, coaxes the immune system to destroy the cancer cells.

            Ten years ago, biologist Irving Weissman of Stanford University School of Medicine discovered that leukemia cells produced higher levels of a protein called CD47 than do healthy cells. CD47 is a marker that blocks your immune system from destroying healthy blood cells as they circulate throughout your body. Cancer cells use CD47 to their advantage, using CD47 to trick your immune system into ignoring them as they slowly attack your body. In the past few years, Weissman has showed that blocking CD47 with an antibody cured some cases of lymphomas and leukemias in mice by stimulating the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as invaders. Now, Weissman and his colleagues have shown that this CD47-blocking antibody may possibly have a far wider impact than just blood cancers.

“What we’ve shown is that CD47 isn’t just important on leukemias and lymphomas,” says Weissman. “It’s on every single human primary tumor that we tested.” Moreover, Weissman’s lab found that cancer cells always had higher levels of CD47 than did healthy cells. How much CD47 a tumor made could predict the survival odds of a patient.

According to ScienceNOW, this was Weissman’s procedure:

To determine whether blocking CD47 was beneficial, the scientists exposed tumor cells to macrophages, a type of immune cell, and anti-CD47 molecules in petri dishes. Without the drug, the macrophages ignored the cancerous cells. But when the anti-CD47 was present, the macrophages engulfed and destroyed cancer cells from all tumor types.

Next, the team transplanted human tumors into the feet of mice, where tumors can be easily monitored. When they treated the rodents with anti-CD47, the tumors shrank and did not spread to the rest of the body. In mice given human bladder cancer tumors, for example, 10 of 10 untreated mice had cancer that spread to their lymph nodes. Only one of 10 mice treated with anti-CD47 had a lymph node with signs of cancer. Moreover, the implanted tumor often got smaller after treatment—colon cancers transplanted into the mice shrank to less than one-third of their original size, on average. And in five mice with breast cancer tumors, anti-CD47 eliminated all signs of the cancer cells, and the animals remained cancer-free 4 months after the treatment stopped.

“We showed that even after the tumor has taken hold, the antibody can either cure the tumor or slow its growth and prevent metastasis,” says Weissman.

Although macrophages also attacked blood cells expressing CD47 when mice were given the antibody, the researchers found that the decrease in blood cells was short-lived; the animals turned up production of new blood cells to replace those they lost from the treatment, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cancer researcher Tyler Jacks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge says that although the new study is promising, more research is needed to see whether the results hold true in humans. “The microenvironment of a real tumor is quite a bit more complicated than the microenvironment of a transplanted tumor,” he notes, “and it’s possible that a real tumor has additional immune suppressing effects.”

Another important question, Jacks says, is how CD47 antibodies would complement existing treatments. “In what ways might they work together and in what ways might they be antagonistic?” Using anti-CD47 in addition to chemotherapy, for example, could be counterproductive if the stress from chemotherapy causes normal cells to produce more CD47 than usual.

Weissman’s team has received a $20 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to move the findings from mouse studies to human safety tests. “We have enough data already,” says Weissman, “that I can say I’m confident that this will move to phase I human trials.”

YAY!!!!!!!

 

Sources: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/03/27/scientists-find-treatment-to-kill-every-kind-cancer-tumor/

 

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/03/one-drug-to-shrink-all-tumors.html?ref=hp

 

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Oh the College Life…

Wow...

Wow…

                The above picture summarizes an anonymous Facebook conversation between two college students. This post is most definitely relevant to our own lives. I mean look at us….we are college students that go to school on a campus that is FILLED with diversity. Have you ever heard your friends say anything derogatory about another race? Have they ever commented on the number of Chinese individuals that attend Penn State? I bet that at least one person can answer yes to those questions.

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                A group of students at Ohio University have recently launched a poster campaign highlighting the racist costumes that tend to appear every year on Halloween (especially on college campuses). While these college students are doing a wonderful thing and fighting back against the hurtful and degrading effects of racism, why should they have to in the first place?

                I urge you to read this short article: http://www.theroot.com/buzz/racism-rears-its-head-college-campuses

The second story is APPALLING! A Murray State University professor resigned after allegedly telling black freshman Arlene Johnson in August of 2010 that he wasn’t surprised that she didn’t show up on time to a film he started 15 minutes before class began because slaves never showed up on time. Are you serious??? A college professor said this to a student!? And this was only 3 years ago! This CLEARLY shows that racism still exists on college campuses, and on very offensive and demeaning levels.

The funny thing about racism is that it is solely based upon stereotypes. This website is actually hilarious, but does hold true to a certain extent: http://blog.chegg.com/2012/07/12/college-stereotypes-which-one-are-you/. While humorous, it shows that stereotypes exist both within and outside of races. How will we ever be able to get past racism externally if we can’t even get over the internal divides within our own college communities??

These examples are meant to target racism on a collegiate level, but think about the real world. Racism doesn’t disappear. In fact, I would argue that it gets worse. Because we surround ourselves with it in college, racism stays with us throughout the remainder of our lives. I’m sure that this is why those that grew up in the 1950’s (many of your grandparents) are very racist…they were constantly surrounded by racist activity. We need to make the change NOW before it is too late and values are established.

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Penn State is a campus that is full of students that are both intelligent and accepting of others. I’m sure that all of you are familiar with the red and pink equal sign that has been floating around the virtual realm. It stands for the acceptance of gay-marriage. I think that Penn State should look even beyond those bounds…start a new revolution. Equality for ALL.

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Persuasive Essay

How Far Have We Really Come?

 

Presumably, a post-racial America will be one in which no one thinks about race anymore; an America in which we all just see each other as individuals. With the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, many have claimed that America became a post-racial society. While the election of the first African American President was a huge milestone in American history, it in no way proves that Americans have moved past their racial tendencies and established themselves as a post-racial nation. Both explicit and implicit examples of racism exist throughout American society today, whether Americans are willing to acknowledge them or not. Racism lives on in America through the actions and words of many.

The ignorant and racist tendencies of many Americans are continually exemplified through both uninformed and intentional actions. Anonymously posted, this definition of post-racial truly shows that America is not fully educated on the topic of post-racial America: “Post-racial is a reference to the newly developed ability of racists to “post” their perennial screeds on the Internet through the use of blogs and message boards.” How can America be post-racial if its peoples don’t even know what the term, “post-racial” means?? Post-racial does not mean that one literally “posts” a racist comment on the internet. Post-racial, according to the Urban Dictionary, is “a term used to describe a society or time period in which discussions around race and racism have been deemed no longer relevant to current social dynamics.”

America’s current foreign affairs situation continually evokes racist tendencies that all-too-often echo throughout the nation. America’s troops are currently fighting against the Taliban in the Iraqi War. While it was a tragedy that began the war on September 11, 2001, it appears as though Americans have associated the violence caused by just a few Muslims on that fateful day with the entire Muslim culture. The following pictures find their roots in America:

 

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Due to the actions of a few corrupt Muslims, our culture has sought out to demonize the entire Muslim culture. Is this post racial? No.

In a New York Times article, a reporter pleads with America to open up their eyes: “Please, I beg you, stop using the bankrupt and meaningless term ‘post-racial!’ There’s no such thing as ‘post-racial.’ There’s no place that fits the description ‘post-racial America.’ There’s no ‘post-racial era.’ It’s a term for a concept that does not exist. There’s no there there.” Furthermore, another anonymous individual agrees in his own post: “Maybe one day America will truly be post-racial but the election of an African-American President does not mean the nation as a whole has moved beyond all racial issues and racist points of view.”

It is odd to see that many people have deemed America to be a “post-racial” nation. Many have heard of the infamous Ku Klux Klan; a group that tortured and murdered thousands of African American men and women all because of the color of their skin. In February of 2012, an increase of KKK membership in Colorado sparked national attention. It is estimated that there are around 5,000 members of the KKK today, a substantial number for a nation that is supposedly “post-racial”. The KKK says their membership is booming in Colorado, with 12 white supremacist groups active in the state, according to a report by The Durango Herald. Cole Thornton, Imperial Grand Wizard of Colorado’s United Northern and Southern Knights Ku Klux Klan group, claims that membership has grown steadily in the past few years.

“I’m really pleased with the kind of people we’re getting in – college-educated, professionals, teachers – even a couple congressmen. People would be amazed to know who I’ve talked with at midnight in isolated areas – it’s almost comical,” Thornton said to the Durango Herald.

Congressmen. There are congressmen that affiliate with this racist group? And America is post-racial? This entire nation is most certainly not over racial differences if members of its own government are involved in groups that target individuals based solely upon their race.

 

***The above is an excerpt from my persuasive essay! Basically, there are more explicit examples to follow including Twitter posts by famous individuals and stories of racism from prestigious individuals. Following these explicit examples will be more implicit examples that still exemplify the racist tendencies that still exist in America today. To close, I will discuss how the movie industry is even still thinking in terms of race (although in a positive light) when producing films, proving that racism is still in existence in America! Let me know what you think!

            One of the hardest things that I had to do when composing was figure out how to organize all of my information in the best way possible. I have SO much information, but I just wasn’t sure how to effectively put it into essay form. I want to present the strongest argument possible, and this is impossible without effective organization. Similarly, I really had to think about who my audience was going to be. Targeting specific individuals helps to focus the essay. My meeting with Kyle REALLY helped me to resolve these issues, however, and I feel as though I am now on a productive track!

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Bugs and Worms

As we all sit and wait for Spring to roll around, I thought that it would be nice to talk about something that has to do with nature (to get you thinking about green grasses and sunny days!) So….let’s talk about worms and bugs. Why? Because worms and bugs play a crucial role in the development of some treatment and therapy methods that could possibly save your life someday!

There are two specific medical treatments that I would like to discuss: 1) Hirudotherapy and 2) Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT).Hirudotherapy is a technique that utilizes leeches. This method was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004, and along with maggots, leeches were some of the first live animals to earn the FDA’s approval. For healthy people, the idea of coming near these creatures seems pretty grotesque, but for patients who are ill, the results are well worth it. Leeches have been capable of restoring healthy tissue when more high-tech medicine could not.

Medicinal leeches have been used for bloodletting—thought to be beneficial for whatever ailed patients—from Hippocrates’ time through the mid-19th century. Currently, leeches are applied to the necessary site, from which they suck the excess blood and reduce the swelling in the tissues, promoting healing by allowing fresh, oxygenated blood to reach the area. The leeches also secrete an anticoagulant (known as hirudin) that prevents the clotting of the blood.

The leech’s saliva is thought to be beneficial as well, providing a local anesthetic that the leech uses to avoid detection by the host. The leech’s gut also holds a bacterium known as Aeromonan hydrophila, which helps in the digestion of ingested blood and produces an antibiotic that kills other potentially dangerous bacteria.

 

While Hirudotherapy utilizes leeches, Maggot Debridement Therapy (MDT) utilizes maggots. Maggots have shown to be quite efficient in the art of healing wounds. This was first visible centuries ago when wounded soldiers whose injuries were maggot-infested healed better than those whose were not. These maggots actually consume the dead tissue and leave the healthy, living tissues alone. Maggots also expel matter which restrains or even kills bacteria, proving especially useful in areas with poor circulation where antibiotics would be of little benefit.

Since the 16th century up until the 1940s, when antibiotic therapy and surgical techniques replaced it, the use of maggots was used and recognized for its healing abilities. In 1989, the advantage of MDT in certain cases over antibiotics was realized when maggots were proven to be more competent cleaners of wounds than any other non-surgical treatment. In 2004, maggots were approved by the FDA.

 

So…whenever it does start to warm up and the sun begins to shine (whenever that may be), think again before brushing those bugs or worms away from you. These animals are actually very beneficial and aid in the survival of many! Personally, these methods scare me and seem unethical, but if the FDA has approved them, there must be proven medical benefits! Who would have thought!

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Advocacy Project

                It has been extremely hard (for me, anyway!) to pick a topic for the advocacy project! At first, I wanted to advocate for cancer awareness, but as I wrote my Civic Issues blog last week, I realized that I have honestly become quite passionate about the idea of a post-racial America. Not only have I been able to find many valid and provoking bits of information that support my position, which states that this so-called “post-racial America” never has and probably never will exist, but I have been captivated by what I have been able to find.

                My Civic Issues blogs have also been able to generate a wide variety of comments that have argued against and for the proposed claim. Drawing upon the thoughts of others will only help me to make my own argument stronger. I think that this topic would be a great choice because it is relevant to society today, there are many credible facts and statistics that will effectively allow me to incorporate the three aspects of rhetorical appeal into my argument, and it is something that I am passionate about. What do you think??

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The Colors of the Rainbow

Cancer is characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body. It affects millions throughout the world and there is no proven cure. While methods for treating cancer include chemotherapy and radiation, these strategies are never guaranteed to fight the disease and oftentimes fail. I can personally attest to the fact that it destroys lives and puts a major strain upon families as they watch their loved ones fall apart. In light of the advocacy project, I wanted to discuss cancer. I was thinking about basing my project upon the promotion of cancer research.

Today, I wanted to discuss the different “colors of the rainbow” that are associated with cancer. Have you ever seen the differently-colored bracelets designed to represent each type of cancer. The different colors are intended to raise awareness and promote the search for a cure. I can personally say that I only knew that pink was used to identify breast cancer. Wait until you see how many colors there are…

 

All Cancers – Lavender

All Cancers – Multicolored

Appendix Cancer – Amber

Bladder Cancer – Marigold/Blue/Purple

Brain Cancer – Grey

Breast Cancer – Pink

Carcinoid Cancer – Zebra Stripe

Cervical Cancer – Teal/White

Childhood Cancer – Gold

Colon Cancer – Dark Blue

Esophageal Cancer – Periwinkle

Gallbladder/Bile Duct Cancer – Kelly Green

Head and Neck Cancer – Burgundy/Ivory

Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – Violet

Kidney Cancer – Orange

Leiomyosarcoma – Purple

Leukemia – Orange

Liver Cancer – Emerald Green

Lung Cancer – White

 

Lymphoma – Lime Green

Melanoma – Black

Multiple Myeloma – Burgundy

Ovarian Cancer – Teal

Pancreatic Cancer – Purple

Prostate Cancer – Light Blue

Sarcoma/Bone Cancer – Yellow

Stomach Cancer – Periwinkle

Testicular Cancer – Orchid

Thyroid Cancer – Teal/Pink/Blue

Uterine Cancer – Peach

Cancer Caregiver Gifts – Plum

Look at all of those colors. One out of every four deaths in the United States is caused by cancer. Cancer is VERY real and it is having a devastating impact upon our society. It is extremely relevant to each and every one of our lives. Maybe you don’t have cancer…maybe no one in your family does…but I am sure that you know someone who does and have seen the effects that it has had upon not only their lives, but the lives of those that love them.

Events like the Relay for Life and THON 🙂 🙂 🙂 are designed for people to walk and dance for a cure! I want to do something, too. Visit the following site for more information on this devastating disease: http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancerbasics/index?gclid=CJmJte7s-rUCFYWo4AodYHQAnA Also, if you could give me some feedback on the relevance of this project and whether or not you feel it would be successful, please let me know. Thank you!!

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